Having ended a war and collected a great reward from the king for their efforts, the party makes preparations to enter the underdark. They have cloaks enchanted for invisibility custom made by an illicit enchant contact in Requiem. The cloaks are made from firesilk imported from the gnomes, which blocks infrared that might be seen by the drow. They also purchase an shadow rope, invisible in low light, of the kind used by circuses and street performers. Leo and Match obtain rings like Lamila’s that will allow them to see in the dark undetected. Lamila also buys a belt like those used by servants of the very wealthy to remain silent except when speaking is absolutely necessary. It should muffle the sound of her armor enough for her to sneak with the others.

With a month of food, mining gear, and several other useful enchants for a journey like this, including several enchanted tattoos on Benquil, they descend into the darkness. Before them stands the Temple of the Bones. Twenty feet above the cave floor is a ledge with a door. Twenty feet above that the massive metal head of a spider with eight glowing red gems.

A rope ladder seemingly made from spider silk hangs from the ledge, up by the door there are signs it has been secured there to prevent entry. Suspicious, Leo approaches climbs up the cliff face, eschewing the rope. Once on the ledge, Leo can see signs that web had covered the door and been cut away. Looking more closely, dispensers can be seen as the origin of the webs. Leo drops back to the cave floor nimbly and reports back to the party.

Assured, Benquil climbs the ladder himself and eases the doors open. Inside he sees a large room with the far end beyond his sight, an oval 30 feet wide and maybe 40 feet long with an hourglass stone table at the center. A red carpet hugs the table, running off toward a corridor out of sight to the left. To the right he sees what looks like a room and to his left further up another opening. While Leo climbs the ladder, Benquil searches the small room to the right, finding coat racks and weapons lockers, all empty. Satisfied, he moves to the corridor on the left and notices a trip wire across the passage. He wards Leo back and they discuss whether to trigger the trap, concerned about the noise it might make. While they talk, Benquil hears a click behind them across the room and turns. Leo turns as well, feeling his ring of Brimahil throbbing softly, a signal of one meaning him harm.

Benquil feels it too, but it’s soft, like a vague menacing more than an assassin’s intent. He assumes his invisibility is working, that the enemy only heard them talking. Benquil moves back toward the door while Leo stays put. At the door, Benquil can hear the faint tinkling of the armored Lamila climbing the ladder in her silence belt. He removes his cloak of invisibility and signals her to the danger as she comes over the lip of the ledge.

Benquil moves back into the room, fully visible now. His ring trembles violently as he moves slowly toward the middle of the room. He suddenly feels a sharp pain in the small of his back. He cries out and Lamila looks for an arrow, but there is none. Drops of blood give them a trail after the stabber and they follow them. Leo casts a light spell, piercing the invisibility of their cloaks, but revealing no assailant. Lamila takes a stab to the back, but it barely pierces her armor. Benquil throws a fist full of dust at the air behind her but sees nothing from it. It gives Leo an idea and he casts a spell, filling the room with a storm of mud. The storm rages and subsides with no sign of their quarry.

Dirty and wet, they look around again for signs of someone moving through the mud on the ground. Lamila suddenly feels another stab, this time more effective. She swings at the air around her, but hits nothing. This time the droplets of blood lead into the coatroom and Benquil moves into the doorway, swinging wildly to keep the assailant from escaping. Lamila steps up behind him, standing wide to physically block any passage.

Suddenly, Lamila feels her helmet being torn roughly off her head. She reaches back and grabs the attacker’s arm, twisting it while she turns and grabs a shoulder. Suddenly her fingers are empty. She rushes into the room searching, but feels a cut across her throat. Her mail coif prevents much damage, but a second stab at the side of her neck does more. She retaliates against the unseen, feeling her axe connect solidly.

A pool of blood starts to grow on the ground before her. Benquil steps into it, slashing at the air. He feels no resistance, but he can see the pool of blood continue to spread, eddying around his feet. Leo tells them both to step back, casting a death and fire spell on the spot. It singes all of them and ignites the stone table in a flash of blazing flame, and a body appears in the pool of blood.

It is a drow, lightly clad and armed with adamantite daggers. A large mirror hangs around his neck by a long chain, shattered by Lamila’s blow. Before they can search the body, though, Lamila enters a frenzy, chopping the foe to pieces. Benquil takes the shattered mirror.